Library News

In 1904 Julian Anthony Dimock, then 31, and his 62 year-old father, Anthony Weston Dimock, found their way from New York City to Marco Island on the lower Gulf coast of Florida. Over the next decade the two former financiers traveled around south Florida by boat, canoe, and ox cart. Julian took photographs and both he and his father wrote several books and nearly 80 magazine and newspaper articles about the people, places, and the unique natural setting.

When the Library at the American Museum of Natural History was putting the final touches on its new online image database, Digital Library Special Collections, staff wondered how to let the public know about this rich and exciting new resource. At around this same time, Library Director Tom Baione was speaking with New York-based artists Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman and the three hatched a plan to share the site’s the unique resources and to give the artists an opportunity to discuss how their work has been influenced by the Museum and its vast collections of photographic images.

The Darwin Manuscripts Project (DMP) is pleased to announce that it was awarded a three-year grant totaling $426,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through its Science, Technology, and Society (STS) Division. This funding will support an exciting new phase of the project, The Botanical Manuscripts of Charles Darwin.